Council faces €35m bill for 170 social and affordable homes

A DUBLIN council has said it has a bill of more than €35 million to be paid to Cosgrave Developments for 170 social and affordable homes in Dún Laoghaire.

The bill comes on top of affordable housing of 117 properties worth €27.5 million already paid for by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council that it has been unable to sell. The council had recommended these be sold on the open market.

The properties were acquired under the Planning and Development Acts, which stipulate developers must provide 20 per cent of any residential development to local authorities for social and affordable housing.

The agreement with Cosgrave Developments was made in July 2006. The company is building on what was the Dún Laoghaire Golf Club lands at the heart of the harbour town.

It is to provide 85 affordable homes and 85 social homes as part of phase one of the development of the golf course; 143 of them are currently under construction.

Sixty-three of these are affordable homes and will cost the council more than €16 million or an average of more than €250,000 each. The 80 social houses will cost almost €20 million or an average of €243,000 each.

Payment for the units will be made by the council when the entire block is finished and they are ready for occupation, the council says.

Cosgrave Developments also plans to build a further 605 residential units in a further phase of the development and this will also be subject to planning law requiring that 20 per cent are for social and affordable homes.

At a council meeting last night when the issue was raised, Independent councillor Victor Boyhan said the council had a serious crisis on its hands. He said people were struggling to secure mortgages and the council needed to do something about that.

People Before Profit councillor Richard Boyd Barrett said all of the affordable homes should be used for social housing instead of being sold on the open market.

“The houses should be allocated to people who really need them,” he said.

However, county manager Owen Keegan warned councillors that if they could not reduce the deficit, the council would not be in a position to fund capital projects this year.

Director of housing Charles McNamara said the council offered finance to people who had been refused by two lenders.

He also promised that if councillors agreed to go ahead with the plan to sell the properties on the open market, the homes would be offered to those on the affordable homes list first. “Please facilitate us in tackling what has become a problem for the council,” Mr McNamara said.

Councillors agreed.